Written by

Michael Symons

@MichaelSymons_

SPECIAL ELECTION

There is a special election for a U.S. Senate seat on Oct. 16. The election was scheduled by Gov. Chris Christie following the June 3 death of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Christie appointed Jeff Chiesa, who was at that time New Jersey’s attorney general, to temporarily fill the seat. Chiesa did not run for the Republican nomination to finish the term. The winner of the special election will serve until January 2015, completing the nearly 15 months remaining of Lautenberg’s term. Another election will be held next year for a full six-year term. In addition to Democrat Cory Booker and Republican Steve Lonegan, six independents are on the October ballot: Robert DePasquale of Butler, Eugene LaVergne of West Long Branch, Stuart Meissner of Dumont, Pablo Olivera of Newark, Antonio Sabas of Irvington and Edward Stackhouse of Hamilton Square.

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TRENTON — Cory Booker and Steve Lonegan clashed so often and so fiercely in their first U.S. Senate debate that when they finally found common ground on a few issues, Iran and the Patriot Act, moderator Jim Gardner felt compelled to take note.

“Whoever wins could hire the other as his assistant. It’s delightful to hear,” said Gardner, the anchor of 6ABC’s “Action News.”

Needless to say, that’s not happening. In a often-tense debate punctuated by both policy and personal disagreements, Democrat Booker and Republican Lonegan each used the word “extreme,” or a variation of it, 12 times to disparage the other as unworthy of representing New Jersey. To break the tie, Booker also used the word “fringe” six times to marginalize the Tea Party movement.

“What New Jersey needs is a leader, not a tweeter,” Lonegan said three times, alluding to Booker’s prolific use of the Twitter social-media platform.

“This is what we have in Washington,” Booker said, after Lonegan interrupted one of his answers. “This guy, so far, tonight has called me delusional and thrown other epithets my way, extremely volatile and divisive language. This is what you will get in Washington, making what’s bad in Washington far worse.”

The candidates met Friday at WPVI’s Trenton studios for an hourlong debate that will be televised Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on WPVI Channel 6 in Philadelphia and at 11 a.m. on WABC Channel 7 in New York. It will air in Spanish Friday on Univision 41.

The candidates disagreed on nearly every issue, including the federal shutdown, immigration, gay marriage, education, Social Security, the minimum wage, how to promote economic development and whether Booker’s tenure as Newark mayor has been a success.

Asked early in the debate about the partial shutdown of the federal government and the prospect of reaching the federal debt limit in about two weeks, Lonegan said he’d stand with Senate Republicans and demand spending cuts.

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“We need to cut the size of government. Cut and cut hard and cut deep,” Lonegan said. “I will not support raising that debt ceiling unless it’s accompanied by massive spending cuts.”

Booker said Washington is being held hostage by “a fringe group of Tea Party people, of which my opponent is a member, who want to hijack the full faith and credit of the United States in order to push what they want.”

Frequently, the candidates’ disagreements were fierce — particularly when Lonegan talked about abortion rights, which he opposes. Booker brought the issue up a few times to make his point that the Republican is outside the mainstream, but Lonegan said it’s Booker who is out of step.

“He supports taxpayer abortions for any abortion. In the eighth month of pregnancy? The seventh month of pregnancy? I’m going to be a grandfather. Nobody’s going to touch that unborn child,” said Lonegan. “When you support aborting babies that are viable outside the womb in their seventh, eighth month of pregnancy, no matter what, that’s barbaric.”

Booker said it’s “100 percent not true” that he supports an expansion of third-trimester abortions.

For the most part, the candidates emphasized positions that were familiar or reflect their party’s usual line. There were two potential exceptions: Booker said he could support a limited use of federal funds for school vouchers for students in failing schools, and Lonegan said he supports national instant-background checks for gun purchases.

Public opinion polls consistently have shown Booker ahead, though his edges in the most recent Monmouth University and Quinnipiac University polls, 13 points and 12 points respectively, have been seen by some as a surprise, given the state’s Democratic tilt. New Jersey hasn’t elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 1972.

Booker has raised about $11 million for the race since January, including $2.85 million in the last two months, and has about $2.6 million cash on hand. Lonegan, a former Bogota mayor, has raised about $1.3 million, including $1 million in the last two months, and has $241,000 in the bank.

The candidates will debate again Wednesday night at Rowan University in Glassboro.